The New York Herald Newspaper, September 1, 1873, Page 3

| b "BOLD BEN BUTLER.” The Great Gubernatorial Grab Game in Massacliusetts, A SERIOUSLY SHAMEFUL STRUGGLE. a ete The Blue-Blooded Brahmins of Boston Branding Butler. WASHBURN, WEALTH AND “ WIRTUE.” The Hard-Handed and Horny-Fisted Men of Athens Shoulder to Shoulder with the Fishermen of Cape Ann, enemas SUMNER AND HIS SONGS OF SUNRISE, Hoar, Harvard College and the Atlantic Monthly Respectabilities Hounding the Tough Man of Essex. “Butler, Beware the Ides of September !” Boston, August 30, 1873, When the colored delegation from the Sixth ward of this city was ruled out of the Worcester Convention two years ago, General Butier was vir- tually defeated. The contest was typical of the Struggle that is now going on in the republican ranks, The Sixth ward of Boston, unlike the more famous “Bloody Sixth” of New York, is thoroughly representative of all classes of society. Beacon Hill towers up in pride on the one hand—an eminence on which are perched the mansions of the rich— and falls away in humility on the other, @ mean declivity revealing the homes of the poor. Here, facing “the Common,” are the aristocracy of the city, the old families of Massachusetts; there, looking out towards the flats and marshes of what is to me an unknown waste, are the citizens whose franchise is the creation of to-day. There is only the shadow of the summit between the blue blood and the black. As Beacon Hill divides this ward, so isthe republican party of the State divided. Yhe moneyed men are on the one side and the laboring population on the other. They are the two wings of the ruling power united once a yeag in State convention. Outside of these are the de- mocracy and the liberal republicans, but everybody knows that they are a helpless and a hopeless minority. That there should be a flerce and bitter contest in.the republican party under such circum- Stances is not surprising. When a party has been long in power in a State and the same men have shaped its policy for years it is natural that the people should exercise little control over their own Affaire, Caucuses and conventions bind them fast, while these caucuses and conventions are embit- tered by their efforts to get free. Such is the con- ition of affairs in Massachusetts at this time. There is a Ring here, asthere are Rings in other cities and Btates, and if the contest that is now going on has Bny real significance it is in the promise to break this Ring and give the power back to the people. HOW THE RING WAS FORMED. The Ring as it exists in Massachusetts to-day was not formed—it grew. lt was born on the Mayfower, but it did not attain the fulness of its ‘btrength until the advent of the whig party. From 1880 to 1852 the State was a whig State, except when Governor Morton triumphed over pro-slavery whigism as @ free-soil democrat. It was thus Sumner got into the Senate, for Webster died In accord with the slave power. Nearly all the prominent republican abolitionists of the few years anterior to the war were previously pro- Slavery whigs. When the whig party died they went over to republicanism and abolitionism in a body. As amere matter of course, they grasped Immediate control of the new party, and have held it ever since with as strong a hand as they exerted over the machinery of the old organ- ization. Years of control over the whig party had gradually cemented the power of & whig dynasty. The old family interest in the State ruled the party, and for years and years Beacon Hill selected the Governor of Massa. ehusetts. Blue blood filled all the high offices of the Commonwealth. The Winthrops and the Ever- etts sat in the Governor’s seat. When Banks, “the Bobbin Boy,’ attained the distinction it marked a new era, perhaps, but in reality the old whig dynasty had not yet lost control. The doors Of the Executive chamber were opened to men who were not of the Brahmin caste, but only on condition that the new men, the Bullocks, the Claflins and the Washburns, should submit to be guided by the Brahmins. Butler is not a Brahmin, and he is nota man to submit to the dictation of Brahmins. His life has been a life of obloquy, Every act of his public career has been construed against him. He has often been most unjustly as- sailed. Dawes, who shared in the Crédit Mobilier frauds, reproaches him as the friend of Oakes Ames. George F. Hoar, who took his back pay out of the Treasury and distributed it in his dis- {gict, placing it where it would do the most good, charges him with being the most wicked of the sal- ary-grabbers. In nearly everything that is urged against him it is a repetition of the new edition of the old story of Washington and his little hatchet. “My son,” said fhe elder Washington, ‘can you tell me wh hacked my favorite cherry tree?’ “Oh! father,” answered George, the fire of truth beam- ing out of his eyes, “I cannot tell a he; it was Ben. Butler.” 1 do not know whether many or any of the charges made against General Butler are calumnies, but 1 do know that the men who make them are generally as deep in the mud as he isin the mire. The assaults usually come from the whig dynasty of Massachusetts and its supporters, They assail him most bitterly, but with the Brahmin polish of New England letters, and he answers them in terms more bitter still, the Mephistophe lean characteristics of his nature grinning at them from out of his speeches in a way that both frightens and maddens them. The whig dynasty of Massachusetts, an element so venerable that it venerates itself, accordingly both fears and hates bim, and Beacon Hill, the home of the dynasty, asks itself in terror whether this “blackguard” is to be allowed to enroll his name on the list of the Governors of the State, to bring the other side of the hill to bask in the eastern sun, and to make the blue biood of Boston, so long potent in society and politics, as thin as water. WHIG HOSTILITY TO BUTLEK'S DEMICRACY. When I employed the word “blackguarda” a mo- ment ago l used it as the peculiar epithet of the Boston Brahmin when speaking of General Butler. It is universally urged against him by his enemtes as the one argument there is no gainsaying—the one grand reason why everybody stiould oppose him. In reality it has no force im the sense in which it is used, Whatever truth there is in it 19 merely descriptive of his flerce answers to flerce invective and bitter accusations, The man is proscribed on far different ground. He said to me the other day that the real reason of the opposition to his pretensions to the republican nomination for Governor was in whig hostility to his old time de- mocracy. If this i# the real reason why the whig dynasty opposes him it is seldom urged. It may readily be anderstood, however, how it may enter into all his relations with men and interests in the State. A few examples will ilinstrate this point, ‘The whig dynasty representa blood and capital, ‘while Batler pute himself forward as the leader of ‘the poor and the champion of the laboring classes. Long years of power have enabled the Ring to dake nljlances which Butler would not respect. NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1873.—TRIPLE SHEET. Harvard College, for instance, under whig and whig republican rule, has enjoyed immunity from taxa- tion, while General Butler declares that he would use all bis power to make the «ix mil- lions of property belonging that inetitu- tion help to bear the burdens of the State ople. In consequence the ged clique of Boston and Cambridge, the Mutual Ad- miration Society of the atlantic , the alumni of the university and the prot re and students in the colleges are op; to him toa man, The office-holders under the State gov- ernment are all his enemies, and would not put him in because he weuld put them eut, A man named Robinson, who has made some local re- pute as the correspondent of a country paper, Was turned out of his oMice et the State House last year by Butler's iriends, and he now prints a pamphlet to prove that there could not have been 4 salary steal had it not been for Butler. It mat- ters not to Robinson that Dawes and the others, who are his friends and will remstate him in office if they can, took tne money—they are good while Butler alone is bad. Nearly all the newspapers oppose him, partly because they always have - posed him and partiy because hé compels them to print his back talk. All these things and many more pgint back to the days of his democracy, and Are made more potent because there was a whig republican dynasty in power before he became an ever since he has been a member of the party. A CASE IN ILLUSTRATION—GEORGE B. LORING, When General Butler told me that this whig dynasty opposed lim because he had once been & democrat, J smiled a gather incredible smile. 1 have since spought me, however, of the cage of Mr. George B. Loring, which is even more marked than that of General Butler, becaut Loring bpe bot Butier’s vigor in overcoming obstacies. . Loring was long a democrat, but he became the most radical of republicans. He is a very pom- pous gentleman, who either inherited or married plenty of money, and who knows a great deal more about fancy agri mye and blooded stallions than about politics, He belongs to the biuest of the blue blood of Salem, which is bluer even than the blood of the Boston Brahmin. it was the Kast In- dia trade of the olden time which put the divine fire in New England veins, and Loring has got i The real Brahmins of the Asiatic world were poli: ticians, and consequently the counteriett article in New kngland is the same. It is Loring’s ambi- tion to obtain political preferment. He mignt have been favorable to Butler if the latter had allowed him to Pepresens the Essex dis- trict in Congress. Butler, bowever, prefers General Cogswell as his successor, and conse- juently Loring 1s compelled to look up to the whig masty for preferment. But, notwithstanding his blood is blue enough, It is tainted with democracy, and the whigs reluse.to give too at latitude to his ambition. He was President of the State Senate, but he cannot be Governor. He would be per- mitted to go to Congress if Butler would let nim, but he must not aspire to be United States Sen- ator. He is usly recognized as a republicap by small distinctions, but he must not expect the highest honors. The whigedynasty will make him Chairman of the Worcester Convention if they can, and so hold him, but they will continue to balk his ambition, as they have always balked it, because he was a democrat. If he wants consolation he must go back to fancy farming and the education of colts, for there is no future lor him while the whig ay rules the State and he ie their ser- vant. This point is conceded on every hand, and what is true of Loring may also be true of Butler. It illustrates the hollowness of the horror at the alleged blackguardism of the latter, and proves that s>lfishness and self-interest and all the baser elements are as potent in blue blood asin the ordinary claret. A question which natur- ally suggests itself under such circumstances is, Where then is General Butler's strength? The question is one that almost answers itself for it is not possible that it should be anywhere than with the people, GENERAL BUTLER AND THE MASSES. The confessions of the dynastic republicans illus- trate General Butler’s popular strength. From the first they conceded him all the Boston delega- tions to the Worcester Convention, except from turee wards, and never tried to conceal their fears that he would carry every ward in the city. The: admit his strength in all parts of the State, and. while they hope for his defeat in the Convention, Uhey are by no means certain they can secure it. A well-informed gentleman, who is not a parti- san and whose opinions are the result of wide observation, assures me_ that he can carry the Convention if his affairs are well managed and the popular voice can find expression. This gentleman does not believe But- ler's avowal that he was cheated out of the nomi- nation two years ago, but regards his defeat as the result of a bDiunder. On the test question of the admission of the Butler delegation from the Sixth ward of this city every delegate was re- quired to rise in his place and announce his vote, and he thinks many weak-kneed persons who would have voted for him by baliot went against him in consequence of this open method, out of fear of the party leaders, I cannot say how true this is, but itis at least a very plausible theory. Whatever may have been the cause of nis defeat at that ume his strength with the people was very great, and it has not been diminished. The masses do not believe the stories that are told to his dis- credit, but regard them, one and all, as slanders and calumnies. The great number of these sto- ries, the persistency end bitterness with which they are circulated, the want of actual proof as to their truth, all operate against their accept- ance. The people, tived of hearing them, regard them as only ancter version of the old slander of the spoons, and to tie general accusation that Butler is & bad man they laughingly answer, in aliusion to his personal peculiarity, “Yes, he has got a bad eye.” In making these accusations so persistently and by constantly painting General Butier as the chief criminal of American political life his enemies overshoot the mark and their arrows fall harmless to the earth. WHY BUTLER WANTS TO BE GOVERNOR. I have been thus minute in all these details to show all the elements opposed to and in favor of General Butler's nomination as preliminary to an explanation of the reasons which make him desire to be Governor at all. Indeed, I have just had from him a direct avowal on this very point. He desires it because he feels that he must conquer his enemies at home before he can aspire to achievements on the broader field of national politics. He sees plainly enough that he could not go before a national convention as a can- didate for President with his own State against him. This shows that he possesses a wider ambi- tion than has ever been attributed to him, but it 18 possible that the desire to be President has never been ascribed to him because of this want of local strength, All through the war and throughout his entire career in Congress he suffered from a con- stant fire in the rear. His partial fatlure asa military leader he attributes to a want of support from his own State. His achievements in the war he regards as entirely his own, ac- complished in spite of obioquy and abuse and opposition of every kind. Consequently he is unwilling to fight any more batties with his enemies bolding the power of his State, and as he has not yet given up the idea of (petite onward to higher station, he is organizing an concentrating all the elements in the republican arty of Massachusetts which can be made to coa- jesce against the whig dynasty. No one before him ever had the courage to attempt this, or the abil- ity to accomplish it. It is @ giant work, but at the present moment it is in a fair way of achievement. Should it be accomplished and Butier become the Governor of this State it 1s not unlikely that the Republican National Convention of 1876 will be the scene of a determined effort on his part to become the next President of the United States. THE ANTI-BUTLER LEADERS OF THE YEAR. . Having thus detailed General Butler’s motives in Making this contest and described the power against which he is compelled to contend, it may be well to glance for a moment at the men who are pe now the ostensible leaders against him and 1 retensiol The organization formed a jamiiton all, some weeks ago, are the managers of the comtest on bebalf of the old whig dynasty. The first name on this list i8 that of Judge Hoar, Grants first Attor- ney General. The Judge 1s a8 ambitious as he is via and unbending. He wanted to be Chief justice of the United States, but he soon found that the whig dynasty could not and the inchoate Butler dynasty would not help him to the place; so his eyes rested on the corresponding position in the Supreme Court of Massachusetts made vacant by the death of Chief Justice Chapman. This place Washburn can give him, if the whigs who direct the Governor's course are satisfied; but he couid not hope to obtain it from General Butier. He ac- cordingly wrote the so-called republican address which emanated from Hamilton Hall, and in which Batler is denounced and Wasburn eulogized. All this is well enough in its way, and if Butler is beaten bis brother whi will certainly owe him the place, Associated with him, so as to give the document weight with the peopie, are some rather remarkable men. They are ‘mostly men of wealth and bigh social position. Jobn M. Forbes, of Milton, is @ Boston merchant, but no vulgar shop- keeper. William Claflin, of Newton, is an ex-Gov- ernor of the State, a man of great wealth but little intellectual force, who commits the solecism of urging Washburn’s second renomination because he was himself three times Governor of the State. Henry L. Dawes, of Pittsfleid, is guilty of an even more unvardonabie solecism in’ eulogizing Wash- burn's purity and Butler's impurity, considering how deeply he was tainted by the Crédit Mobilier trauds, ter Howe, of Cambridge, is a physician and an old time abolitaonist, the latter being a dis- tinction which few of his whig associates can claim. James L. Littie and ae Hardy, of Boston, are both commission merchants, whose 868 are to this city what two or three great houses are to New York. Harvey Jewell 13 also a man of wealth and a politician who has been speaker of the House of Re- sentatives on Beacon Hill and aspires to be Gover- nor as soon as the dynasty willlet him. Another Boston man is Horace H. lidge, a young lawyer, formerly President of the Senate, who is sometimes referred to by General Butler as ing & nose indicative of the manner in which the prohibitory liquor law is enforced. Luke Lyman is the internal revenue officer who wrote a letter to Bowles two ears to “fix things” against Butler in Spring- eld, The others are unknown to political fame: men whose names are subscribed to the addr because of their local repute and respectanility. Se it will be seen that, in spite of the drawbacks incident to the opposition of guch fallen saints as Dawes, the document is one calculated to exert ‘considerable influence in stirring up Butler’s ene- mies, and the anti-Butler leaders of the year are generally men of that immaculate respectabihty on which the whig dynasty of the State prides itself, THE HAMILTON WALL ADDREAB. Turning from the men who signed the Hamilton Hall address to the address itself we find it a doca- ment marvellous in ite subtl ka The name of General Butley is nog mentioned, bus high sound Aust oF § praise of Governc: wasnourn ts its body and substance. All that is uttered in Washburn’s behalf may be true, but his praises are sounded in sentences 60 singularly constructed that each one of the eloquent commendations of the Governor is 8 Spanish r aimed at some part of Butler's political anal . This detracts from th hess of its praise of Washburn resal address into the original proposition, ‘Butler is @ bad man—ne has got a bad eye.” It is equally dis- Ingenuous ip another respect—the only respect in which it departs from the commendation-condem- nation principle. “For the first time in our party history,” it says, ‘an attempt is made to overturn an existing republican administrauon in Massa- chusetts in the interest of one man’s personal am- bition,”’ notwithstanding ‘it has been usual to re- tain in office for three years at least ernor whom the republican party had chose! as in “the precedents with Banks and Andrew and Bullock aud Clafin.”” The disingenuousness of this proposition consists in the facts that when Butler made his famous contest at Worcester two ears ago It Was understood that it was a war to he knife, and the signers of the Hamilton Hall addresa knew that the contest was only suspended last year as the result of a bargain between Gen- eral Butler and the dynasty in whose behalf they speak that the fleld was td clear this time in return for Butler's undivided support of the party in the Presidential canvass. Butler was outwitted and be- trayed, at which people generally will laugh, as they laugh at every misfortune which happens to bim; but the fact remains that politicians of all classes in Massachusetts are capable of making unworthy bargains and breaking them as goon as they have served the purposes of the epee And, worse than t! a, Jb BRO Wat tte New Eng- pag Brahmjns, liké the priests of the older ‘ahma—& god whom the Yankee poets so fre- t edgrbeehraaats no better than they ought to be. There will be, however, no cessation in the songs to Brahma. BUTLER AND WASHBURN. I do not intend drawing a Per between the two men who are handicapped for the race at Wor- cester, Both are well known to the country, both were long in Congress together, and both are in- timately connected with the politics of this State. Butler is the more famous, and Washburn the more conservative. The former nas been more roundly abused and thoroughly hated, both in and out of Massachusetts, than any politician in the country ; the latter has escaped almost every toulness of the breath of scandal. The one, bold, vigorous and aggressive, has ined little but evil fame; the other, slow, plodding and dependent, has reaped only good repute. 1am not disposed in this letter to award condemnation or praise to either, AllI have attempted or shall attempt is to show the relations of each to men and par- ties. So far as personal ambition is concerned, I suppose it 18 attributable alike to both, Few men refuse to be Governors or Presidents when they see the way to these responsible stations opening before them. Consequently the allusion to ‘one man’s personal ambition” in the Hamilton Hall address 1s significant. Butler is for himself and the common people upon whom he must depent for preferment, Washburn is for himself and the dynasty which made and is seeking to make him Governor. The State Convention de- cides between them and they must stand or fall by that decision, Apart from the alleged demerits of the one and the proclaimed merits of the other— points on which my readers would not thank me jor expanding—this is all there is to the contest. It means that the old blood or the new shall rule Massachusetts—that the tuture shall be opened or forever closed to General Butler, and it means nothing more. THE CANDIDATES AND THBIR SUPPORTERS. 1 have already treated at sufficient length of the candidates, and to a considerable extent of the men who are Washburn’s leading supporters. The olitical prominence of the Hoars and other mem- ers of the old whig dynasty makes it compara- tively easy to pice them out and portray them, They and their fathers and their grandiatuers and their great-grandfathers always ruled Massachu- setts, These things are not true of the Butler champions, The Butler delegations come from the flelds and the factories and the workshops. Fig- uratively speaking, as wellas actually, they are from the fading slopes of Beacon Hill, Few of them share in the blue blood of New England, few of them have ever seen the magnificent parlors of the rich, and very few of them have ever touched the embroidered garments of the Brahmin caste. I cannot describe the officers of a Butler con- venticle as I described the signers of the Hamilton Hall address, as I could describe a thousand others among Washburn’s iriends, for nobody knows them or knows aught concerning prema 2 that they are the hard-handed men ol Athens—Nick Bottom the weaver, and Peter Quince the carpenter, and Flute, and Snug, and Starveling and the rest. ‘These things, and indeed all things else in Massa- chusetts, illustrate that the battle is now between the high aristocracy and the real democracy, and I am tempted to believe that Butler himself is the modern Bottom, willing to play all the parts, and far outrivalling the poor wit of the Duke and bis retainers. At the same time [ must not forget to remark that the men of national reputation in this State—Sumner and Wilson and Banks and afew others—are neutral in this contest. Sumner has | been spending the summer on the beach with Long- | fellow, talking poetry rather than politics, Wilson is nursing himself alter the severe strain of the late campaign upon bis constitution. Banks spends the greater part of his time in and about vown; you can find him at the Parker House almost apy day, wrapped in the mantle of his own originality, and without a political be estion in his cranium, This canvass 16 one of work, and very dirty wor! and it is left to those who like it. Judge Hoar, d scribed by Lowell as a man Who covers with his hat More wit an’ gumption an’ shrewd Yankee sense ‘Than there is mosses on an old stone tence, is the only representative of the li With their tongues, and they certainly do not de- scribe him as well bred, witty, virtuous and every- body's cousin, But while every Bohemian who 18 a real Bohemian {s vigorously talking Butler down, there remains the singular fact that, among all the hubbub, Sumner and the really eminent men of the Stace are indifferent. It is likely that little importance is to be attached to their neutrality; it may be the result of sheer disgust with polities; but, if it has any significance at all, it is an omen favorable to Butler. THE ISSUES OF THE CANVASS, It may be fairly assumed at the outset that there are no national issues in this canvass. There is the back pay grab, to be sure, but itis a personal rather than @ national question. Both facvions are excessively loyal to the administration and neither can seé any possible improvement on Gen- eral Grant's policy. There is some talk on questions of local interest, but this is only intended to hurt Mr. Butler. After the Worcester Convention there will be no issues at all. Before the Convention the only real question is the choice of a candidate. But the manner in which this question ts handled just now is exceedingly funny. I have heard it taiked about by a hundred people in the last two days. | could not even nelp overhearing it talked about. On the part of Mr. Butler’s friends political discus- sion takes the form of profound admiration of vhe general Mephistophelian characteristics and all and reeor approval and endorsement of every public act of his life. Whatis better to him than this Quixotic devotion is the loudly expressed de- termination of his supporters to “get them tellows out,” and the fact already stated that the masses refuse to believe any of the stories concerning him. On the part of his enemies he is denounced with a rancor that exceeds belief—a rancor viler and ry set. | These fine people do all their work against Butler | send him toa place of a similar name, parted in | more bittereven than that which disgraced both | sides in the recent Presidential canvass. How men of culture and social position can so degrade themselves and American politics it is dificult to understand, especially when it 1s only done to keep Washburn tn and Butler out. The more humorous element to which I referred just now is the pre- tence of both sides, and particularly of the Brab- min office seekers, that they do not want ofiice. They are like Decimus Roach in ‘“Kenelm Chil- lingly,”’ who, having determined to get married, alter advocating celibacy as the nearest “approach to the angels,” wanted it whe understood that his contemplated change in condition waa not from any motives of self-gratification. The Massa- chusetts Brahmins do not £°, BO fi having long regarded ofMiceholding as the nearest approach to the angels, now that they wee a robability of Wet Vil and power, they want it distinctly understood that they do not seek office from motives of self-gratification, far, perhaps, but | Butler, on the | other hand, boldly avows that he does want office, | and bis “personal ambition” is, in eonsequence, his most painful crime. A canvass conducted by Means 80 ignoble and under disguwes so thin would be disgraceful to any State, but it is doubly disgraceful to Massachusetts. The most forcible argument that i le argument that is urged against General Butler is his support of the Wcioanuys clause in the Salary Grab bill. This 1s a measure about which there are scarcely two opinions among honest men, It is almost universally conceded to be indefensible. But in times of general political demoralization arguments of this kind must be pam pigs A urged to be made effective. As it is used in Massachusetts it is simpiy grotesque folly. Robinson and the rest dance over poor Butler in their war paint, employing the little book on “The Salary Grab” which windows wherever he g and = scalpin, knife. According to this book General Butler is a monster of villany red ° even smons salary grabbers. He not on); re the bill, but he mancuvred it, he passed it and he caused’ it to be signed, and then le took the a money and kept it, ) to taking the money, that was bad enough, but kee ing it did not mage the matter worse. Indeed, I think it made it better, ior there Was at least no hypocrisy and sham about it, As to the other charges, most people think it 1s putting it @ little too strong, and so when they come to remember that Mr. Hoar took the money, and Mr. Dawes took it, and General Banks took it, and all the rest took it the force of the argument 1s only too likely to be lost on them, and they answer the orators and accusers in the language PA be ongn at hee (ey es aaery ot the New jas injures “ the matter with you?” nl eee Ever since tome zealot at South Framinghe 1 ‘amingham, on the Fourth of July, asked General Butler ‘rnether, as Governor, he would enforce the Prohibitory verinetukerenas’ to" tastew cietecte ata fun enemies have been ido | ‘temperance his election would imperii their sacred Ferogative of preven’ other king. If from there 16 prohibitory liquor law in Massachusetts, and Boston ts 8 proper point from which to Jndge Of tts operations, there meed be no question of its enforcement between Governor Washburn snd General Batier, When I arrived in the cit other T was invited to begin ru the the travel by wettne my | nent | Financial Secretary, occurred almost immediately after breakfast it was an unusual shock to the habits of a staid New- Yorker, who never thinks of even beginning to get drunk till im tne evening. More than this, the wine was worse than the enforcement of the law. ‘The truth 18, the liquor law is a sham, @ pretence. Laquors are sold everywhere, and as openly as in New York or Philadelphia, The Governor knows it, the State constabulary know it, the police know it, the people know it and the canting and nh temperance orators know it. nse quently it isan impertinence to candidate to ask him whether he would enforce the law as well as Governor Washburn enforces it—an offence the only proper punishment for which would be, to compe! him drink Boston liquor datly till he sincerely repents, A CANVASS OF SHAMS AND SLANDER. If there are any questions outside of these I have never heard of them. These are shams and the others would be shams also. From the wooden nut- megs Of Connecticut to the single-breasted women of the entire region everytning seems to be “imtta- tion,” “made np,” sham, pretence. Butler appears to be the only honest thing in Massachusetts, for he at least never seeks to conceal his acts and boldly avows his purposes. The whig dynasty be- lieves The older a guv'ment is, the better 't suits, New ones hunt foik's corns out like new boo! Thange jes’ tor change is like them big hotels, Where they shift plates and let you live on sinells, Butler, on the otuer hand, is for ——= the plough, the axe, the mill. All kin’s o' labor'an’ all kin's 0° skill. Fach side 1s ready to expose the corns of the other, an h avOWS that it is the Other that would fee the people on smells, While the whig aynaany 18 shamming about its gooduess and respectability and “vartoo” and calumniating the other side Butler is giving as good as he gets. Says Mr. George F, Hoar, after referring to Butler’s eulogy of himself, ‘I never knew anybody else to say much good of him.” Aud General Butler answers, “The only public testimonial that he can show is a dinner of thanks given him by the trustees of a school to which he had come down with a share of his back sal- ary.” Mr, Adin Thayer, of Worcester, went to Ham- iiten Hall and arraigned General Butler for taking the back pay, wlereupon Butler answers that Thayer, who 1s an internal revenue officer—one of the administration republicans who do not support Butler—drew $9 mileage and $203 pay as State Senator, though at the time ie was constitutionally disqualified to sit i the Senate. Robinson, who wrote the history of the ‘salary grab,” is called a “persistent salary grabber,” and General Butler shows that in 1864 and 1865 he had his pay as clerk of the House in- creased “twenty per cent backward to the begin- ning of the session.” All who assatl him must ex- pect to be assailed in turn, and it seems that nearly everybody in Massachusetts—that is, nearly every- body in politics—is vulnerable to attack. Under these circumstances all that I could advise the average Massachusetts politician to do is to stick to hig shame, but to quit lying. Lying 18a thing that anybody can indulge in, and like Kelsey's tar and feathers, it disgraces a whole community. “THEY CALL ME BEN.” One of the most plaintive things whtch General Butler ever uttered was the sentence in his Wake- field speech on Wednesday :—“If, sometimes, this strain of calumny shall stop and they cannot find anything else, then they display their wit and call me Ben.” We have always been told that General Butler has a hide as thick as a rhinoceros; that no accusation ever affects him, and t»at slanders and calumnies are matters of no concern to him, This little phrase, “they oall me Ben,” tells a dif- ferent story. The strong man is evidently growin; weary of abuse—is at least seeking for courtesy, not for kindness, A Boston paper the other day even called him “Benny;’? and in refuting nis Worcester speech made him talk about “Bill Rob- inson.” The practice is not complimentary to American journalism, but Inacountry where Wash- ington is called “George” as often as the Queen is cailed ‘Her Majesty’ in England it has little sig- nificance. 1 know of one newspaper scribbler who always calls the new American Minister to Japan Demi-John A, Bingham. General Cushing is almost invariably called “Caleb,” and we are often ex- pected to know that the ‘President is meant by the Mention of “Ulyss.’? It ig no wonder, then, that the familiarity has become offensive to General Butler, especially when it 1s indicative of the spirit which has caused a cloud of calumny to hang over his life and to obscure and almost obliterate the good deeds and vigorous actions of a strong, boid man, who has his virtues as well ay his jaults, POLITICAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS, La TSE William Henry Clifford, son of Judge Clifford, of the United States Supreme Court, is the rising sun of the Maine democracy—if the Maine demo- cracy are entitled to any sun. The Portland Press calls them the “moribund democracy,” because, probably, they want more of them. It is a. somewhat singular fact that most of the papers called Democrat hold republican principles, and those called Hepublican hold democratic or conservative principles. Witness the Rochester Democrat, the St. Louis Repudlican, &c. Butler has swept Boston.’ Wish he would come | to New York and try his hand with a broom on some of our streets, Lynn is pronounced “solid for Butler.” There are few people in any city in Massachusetts who have more sole than the people of Lynn. They go for Butler to their last peg. Lowell is for Butler all over. There are a good many Massachusetts politicians who would like to the middle with a little h.” A Western paper insinuates that it is the royal “purp” and not the royal purpie that General Grant is seeking after. The Boston Globe thinks that the democratic party of Massachusetts is pretty thoroughly de- moralized, irom the fact of the slight interest felt in the State Convention which is to meet at Wor- | cester this week, Suppose the anti-railroad monopolists in lowa shonid select a railroad president as their candi- date for Governor, where’s the harm? Is it to be supposed that all railroad presidents are dishonest or unworthy of public confidence? Edward Avery, of Braintree, is spoken of as the probable candidate of the Massachusetts democracy for Governor. No doubt it would be a very good selection, but the chances of his election are so slim that men of moderate means had setter not bet much on his success, The Boston Transcript avers that Boston was carried for the Butler delegates by the aid of demo- crats. That isthe sort of aid he 1s likely to rely upon if he expects to be elected Governor. The Transcript also predicts that Butler will not get more than @ third of the delegates to the Repubil- can State Convention. Not to give the a idea too dramatic turn, it seems a8 if the Pennsylvania democracy were de- termined to sbake Speer. WISCONSIN POLITIOS MILWAUKEE, August 30, 1873, ‘The Democratic and Liberal Republican State Committees have called a State Convention to meet in Milwaukee, September %, to nominate ‘an opposition ticket for Governor and other State officers, They adopted the following resolutions :— Resolved, That in the opinion of these committees the time has’ come when all patriotic and intelii- ent electors of Wisc who seek the elec- ion of hone: ble and incorruptible men to office, complete and perma. Tetorm ih public affairs, irrespective of pa political associations, should unite in one convent Upon one platform and upon the same candidates, and nat the saine candidates, and assert the sacred right of electing their own rulers, independent of corrupt party Dower and of the decision ot all. professional politicians Bad political rings allied with or apolog iziug therefor, THE BLEVENTH REGIMENT. A Disaffected Rank and File. A humber of members of the Eleventh regiment held @ meeting at No. 26 Delancey street, yester- day, for the purpose of takiag action to protest against certain acts of the commander and chief oficers of the regiment. The principal grievance appeared to be the extravagance of the officers in running the regiment in debt. They would, it was represented, Cause an expenditure of $260 for music for @ single parade and $90 additional to pay the drum corps.. Where a corps of twenty-four musicians would be snfMcient they employ forty. A permanent organization for the purpose of put- ting an end to these abuses and to introduce the needed reforms wi effected by the election of officers as follows :—-President, Henry Heuser; Vice President, H. Miller; Secretary, L. Laeders; H. FP. Mauder;' Sergeant at Arms, George Gutheil. After a lenghty discussion it was urged that Colonel Vilmar, the commander of the regiment, be calied upon to resign, and an executive committee of ten was formed to prepare a piss, of action necessary in the premises, and to submit the same ata meeting to be heid in a few days. The committee was composed of Messrs, Gruenwald, _H. Haida Plump, Pleighardt, Geidemann, Brackmann, Sauer and Storch, TWIN MOUNTAIN Housg, N, H., August 31, 1873, An excursion train from Lancaster brought a party of some 360 persons here to-day to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach. The spacious which will ‘accommodute an audience of 300, Wa crowded, and many were anable to gain admis- sion. ‘A STREET FIGHT, Boston, Mass., August 31, 1873, Patrick Morrison, ® bricklayer, voarding in Al- fe tea peer oar terribly and probably fatally cut in nec! night in a ati . - non was arrested cr the seseat,” Gots manera pie omRiQred om tha Day Foxt Qmice pull | national.” VIENNA. MEETING OF THE PATENT CONGRESS What It Means and How the Monarchs Changed Their Minds About It, The Dread of the Inter- national. THE PROBABLE VALUE OF THE CONGRESS, Cholera in Vienna--Exagger- ated Reports. Vienna as Healthy as Any City in Europe. QUR AMERICAN COLONY What They Think and Do and Say. IN. VIENNA. VIENNA, Augast 1, 1873, ‘THE PATENT CONGRESS. Weare beginning the fourth month of the Expo- sition, The feature in August will be the great Patent Congress. Without knowing what will pe the result of the deliberations of this assembly it will be well for your readers to have a little idea of its history, Some time ago Mr. Jay, the American Minister at this Court, became convinced that among the most useful ofices of the Exposition would be the revision of the different patent laws of Europe and the codification of an international system which would do justice to the genius of acute men in every nation, and at the same time not give one people any unfair advantage over an- other. It would be a long story and not a very useful one, I fear to tell you the complications and vexations that attend the efforts of any inventor to cover his patent by the protection of a foreign government, An American may invent a sew- ing machine or a cotton gin or a fax spinner, or any instrument or machine capable of ministering to the comfort and wealth of the world, and a German may take the machine and reproduce it on his own account without giving the inventor the benefit of a dollar. I suppose we can do the same thing in America, and have done it, taking machines and instruments and achievements from foreign people just as we sometimes take English books and republish them witheut giving the authors any return, But the practice is evil and snould be amended. THE MEANING OF THE CONGRESS. Mr. Jay’s Klea was that, as the world was assem- bling here to witness this Exposition and to assist in 1t8 development, the time would be very pro- pitious for studying this patent question, carefully considering the laws of each country, and seeing if it were possible to arrange upon an interuational system which would be advantageous to all. I do not know that our Minister had anything more than an indefinite idea of attaining this invaluable | end, not only for bis own country, but for other countries; still, it was a noble thought earnestly pursued. When the matter was brought to the attention of the Archduke Rainer, as the head of | Lxposition, he A letter was addressed to Mr. Jay by the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs, giving, nd the general direction, of approved it. the I believe, an official approval of the Congress, indicating the purpose on the part of the imperial government to send official delegates assembly, Intimatiovs were also received from England that the English government would do the same thing. Likewise Germany. Upon the direct assurance of the Austrian government, con- veyed in an official letter, which I have no doabt ison file in the State Department at Washington, Mr. Jay induced the American government to send out Mr, Thacher from the Patent Office. But the preliminary or rather the second thought of the Austrian authorities was not favorable to the tdea of a Patent Congress. In the first place, the idea of any congress meeting even to arrange so practi- cal @ matter as patent laws was @ step so radical, 80 far in advance of the policy of a nation hike Austria, that they could not be brought to consent to it without a shudder, INTERNATIONAL IDEAS. When [ speak of a shudder I allude to the extra- ordinary fear that exists in the minds of European States generally of what ts called ‘The Inter- I think it was Alexander, of Russia, who spoke of Napoleon, when an exile at St. Helena, as his “nightmare,” and declared he never slept well while the exile lived and there wasa chance of his returning to Europe. An influence more terrible than that of Napoleon, because not the Itfe of a mere man, but of a principle, rests upon the consciences of the kings; 80 when you speak of arbitration, such as we had in Geneva, or of an international movement to affect patent laws, or of any such active policy as suggests the international communistic theory, we excite ail the latent terrors that the fear of the international revolution inspired in these royal minds. Know- ing this Ihave wondered as I have walked through the high sweeping halls of this magnificent palace of the Prater whether the imperial mind that in- spired it did not see that this Worid’s Exposition was itself a monument of internationalism, an in- | vitation to the very doctrines and theories which are so strongly feared, THE MONARCHS CHANGE THEIR MINDS. Be itasit may the Patent Congress idea grew weaker the more it was considered. First we heard that Germany would not send a commissioner: Probably she may ask one of her delegates at Vienna to observe and make a minute of the dis- cussions. Officially, however, Berlin will not re- cognize any Congress of this kind, Then, in re- sponse to @ question addressed to Lord Enfield, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the House of Commons, the English Minister an- nounced a similar conclusion. They would send a representative to report tothe government the valne of the discussions, but they would take no partin them. The gentieman who was then desig- nated ia now in Vienna—Mr. Wallace, [ think, they call him, and a member of the English Bar, whose Specialty has been the arguing of patent cases. I do not think that more than two coun- tries—Switzerland and Bavaria—have sent oMcial delegates, and so our extraordinary oMetal accredited to the Congress is here to-day in the commission in the position of a delegate to an assembly which is not an assembly but stmply a debating club, Competent men they ail are— skilled in Knowledge of patents and inventions; quite able to show the jars and breaks and rough corners of different laws and to suggest remedies to their assembly on the 4th of August, but not competent to make any recommendation that will bind or in any way influence their governments. I cannot see, as it now stands, that the Patent Congress will be practically of any more value than the sending of skilled gentlemen to a debat- ing society {n @ saloon at Baden Baden, What the determination of Mr. Thacher will be I am not in- formed, 1 can well understand how Mr. Jay, how- ever, would feel embarrassed at first by this want of good faith, if Ibe allowed so harsh a phrase, on the part of the Austrian government, in generating the idea of the congress, and inviting America to take part in it, and then sud- denly withdrawing from the position. But Mr. Jay {sa man of too mueh prudence and patience and Sincerity of mind, too thorough a republican, and too profoundly convinced of the wisdom of the great principles which underlie the plan of the congress to paralyze any possible results by the A&kDbItaN of emper—~so that instead of pu to the 3 | which would be perfectly proper, an earnest remonstrance to the Austrian government, it is quite probable that our people will encourage even the meeting of the Debating Society on Patents, and endeavor to shape its conclusions 80 aa to obe tain, if not ‘a result, at least the germ of a result, which in due time will take root and flower and be of advantage to the nations. THE VALUE OF THE EXHIBITION. The Exposition goes on in its silent way. The attendance is not diminished materially from what it wasin the beginning. People do not come to Vienna in large numbers, but still there are a great many strangers in town, (should say that the ixhibition is no longer a show, but a study, a8 some of the most gifted men of all nations are making a prolonged stay in Vienna for the purpose of giving minute attention to the details, resources and accumulations of this extraordinary conven- ton of industry and art. I presume the Austrian government has long since abandoned the idea of making the Exposition pay as a finan 1 apecula- tion, I question if any but the enthusiastic hotel keepers and the wild speculators who spent all the money they could borrow upon the unoecupled avenues of magnificent buildings, expected any financial benefit from the Exposition, The gain to Austria will be, not in the treasury, but in moral strength; in reputation throughout the world for industry and results of iabor; in bringing to the front rank the result of the im- genious qualities of the Austrian people, who have long since been clouded by misfortune and false statesmanship and misadventure in internacional relations. To use an expression fainiliar to journal- ists and business men, Austria spends a large amount of money in this Exposition to “advertise”? herself to the world, Whatever may be said of the Austrian Emptre, no one who has seen the marvei- lous achievements of her people, a8 shown in the splendid halls of this industrial palace, will cease to have the highest opinion of her qualities of eu- terprise, thrift and progress. THE CHOLERA IN VIENNA. Tought to say a few words on the sanitary cons dition of Vienna, if only to calm the fears of intend- ing visitors to the Exposition, I cannot say Vienna is free from the cholera. There are some cases every day, but they are confined to portions of the city not visited by strangers to any extent, The ill-fated Hotel Donau has had to bear the brunt of the epidemic sensational fever. Some deaths did occur tin this hotel; but Mr. Remington, who has lived there the whole time, assures me that he has not seen or experienced any signs of the dreaded disease, Filth, intemperance, irregular habits seem to be the only well defined cause of the attack. Not two blocks away from my hotel, in the Leopoldstadt, there is a house (No. 61 Tabor- strasse) in which sixteen deaths took place in a8 many days. The house was closed, and the police examined the wellin the courtyard from which the occupants had obtained their drinking water. What did they find there, think you? Said well had not been cleaned for the last twenty-two years. It was choked with the putrid bodies of dead rats, with offal, with the very concentration of filth. No wonder persons died by the “score from drinking the poisoned water of this well. During the pesti- lences which prevailed in the Middle Ages in trope the common people had very strange ideas about the wells, ‘(hey had an undefined idea that the wells were, for the most part, the cause of the pestilence, but they explained the matter differently. They said the Jews poisoned the waters, and then those terrible persecutions of the much-abused race commence In some places, as at Munich, the legend spread abroad that in one of the wells a dreadful dragon had ensconced himself, and from his Jair he sent his pestilential breath over the city. So far the disease is sporadic in Vienna, and there is little chance of its becoming epidemte, in view of the sanitary precautions already taken. The report ublished in English hg Ae of seventy deaths having occurred in the Hotel Donau Is simply a wicked fabrication. Vienna has already suifered much trom these reports. Ihave no de p to Con. coal the true state of affairs here, und can assert with @ good conscience that Vienna is as healthy as any other European city, perhaps more so, ILLUS PESTS. ‘The high people come slowly along, justenongh to keep society fluttering. We have had the @zar of Russia, as you know, aud the King o} the Belgians. The other day’ the King of Wurtemberg was here. I don't know how many grand dukes and people of nigh degree, minor German princes and people of illustrious quality and station have visited Vienna quietly. We have | had ex-queens, like Isabelia, who stays here with ! her dauguters, on her way from the Pope, and the Count of Chambord, who was an imdastriou: tendant at the French department tor a tew day while Amadeus would Ave been here but for the illness of his wife, Which advices from Turin make us think is more Serioug than has been believed. We have still many princely visits to expect, Yhe &mperor of Germany hus not yet pala his long-promised visit’ to Francis joseph, some accounts say for the reason that 18 not so stroag and hearty as he ; some, ni that he is slightly offended at the prominent posi: tion which tie ex-Crown Prince of Hanover o pies at the Viennese conrt, But, still, ali hopes of his coming have not been given up. ‘The Crown Prince and Princess of Saxony were expected this week; but tue illness of the aged monarch of Saxony, the venerable Johann, may cause them to postpone their visit, but we trust not for long, OUR AMERICAN COLONY. We have very few Americ: in Vienna, our countrymen finding the attractions of Paris more enduring than this Exposition of Vienna, and very likely deterred by the hints of cholera which the English press publish so prominently, to the great | detriment of Vienna, C. M. Goston, the director | of the Centennial of 1870, arrived a day or two since, rather tardily it is thought, but not too iate, 1 hope, to gather many ideas from the Exposition and learn the lessoos for Philadelphia that can only be learned in Vienna. Mr. Thacher, from the Patent Ofice, who comes in an official capacity, has also arrived rather late for the best use, but stillin time enough to do emcientservice in the’ Patent Congress—that 1s, if permitted to take | partin it. In view of the withdrawal of the other | governments he has telegraphed to Washington jor instructions. Mr. Garretson, chief commis- sioner, has goue for a few days with his family into the Alpine countries, but will return in time for the great distribution of prizes, The American ex hibitors are talking about what sort of an a | | Knowledgment they are to make for his ! services. The English, you know, are going | “to do the thing handsomely” for Mr. Owens. Garretson reminds berg of Mr. me of acurious ‘tL that transpired a few days ago. In Mr. Garretson’s oMce at the Exposition is a quiet, hard working, kindly young man, named Henry Rose. Henry's name of childhood was Heinrich, since he was born in Austria; but he was taken across the ocean when three years ol | Henry here last spring. Some days ugo the police suddenly summoned the young man, He appeared, and was immediately despatched to Presburg, in Hangary, the Austrians claiming him as a subjectand Habie to military duty, ag you know, every child, as soon as born, is entered in the great government ledger, and never lost sight of uoti! he is anfit or unget-at-able for service. Some energetic letters on the part of Mr. Garret- son soon brought Henry back again to his post, but only with the hint that @ year hence he would | be again cailed on for duty. This space of time is | doubtiess given him to “clear out” in. Henry does not care to stay. MOVEMENTS OF AMERICANS. Dr. Rappaner has left town for Switzerland. General Van Buren has not returned, and was last heard of at Zurich, preparing for his great cam- paign at home, Mr. Jay remains at his post, every now and then taking 4 run to Salzburg, where his family are spending the dogdays, but practically on duty for the summer. Mr. Charles Francis Adams has returned trom bis Tyrol trip, looking brown and fresh, and not disposed to prejudice his hereditary claims for the Frestaency by any per- sonal enterprises against General Butler in the Governorsbip Cg Mr. McElrath still remains, quiet, industrious, Kind to everybody, and will robvably see the affair concluded. General Collis, of ‘hiladelphia, arrived a few days ago, representing the Philadelphia Commission, 1 believe, and is in- dustriously a. 2 the Exposition, He had a little diMculty with & Russian oficer the other day in the grounds, which everybody feared might come to & duel, but all was harmoniously arranged by the Kind offices of General Chapman, the valiant delegate in Congress from the District of Columbia. It is a long uarrative, the causes lead- ing to this disturbance, but does not seem to be worth printing. I onty allude to it for the purpose of reimarking that nothing is easier than for au American to travel throughout the length and breadth of Europe without getting into trouble tf he is so minded. One of our American restwu- rants has closed. Tne proprietors, finding that they were unable to meet their engagements, have | lefe us very suddealy. We miss tueir restaurant very muck. it was weil conducted, some- j what dear, but it suifered under sume disease the whole Exposition is labor- {ing under—lack of visitors, The other | American restaurant has changed its character | from an American restaurant to a Viennese beer ball, The proprietor informed your correspondent | the other day that there were not Americane enough in Vienna to make his first experiment pay. We have had a ifttle fire m the Exposition ands, the Alsace-Lorraine farmhouse burning jown, Asthere are few te ip the Bxposi- tion more attractive than this the loss is keenly felt. The suggestion that it might have been set on fire by some patriotic Frenchman to revenga the annexation of the two provinces to Germany iq not accepteu, the cause of the fire being well un. doratood to be the neglect of the attendants ici upon the place, The building ts a loss, and will not be rebuilt. The contents were insured, a: indeed, are all the objects placed on exhibition b: the Germans, the Berlin government having patd @ preminm of 40,000 thalers to cover tue eVeMly of a atend